Steve Jobs changed my life, as he has changed the lives of millions around the world. We had another tip already scheduled for today, but when I heard the news that Steve Jobs died early this morning, I knew I had to somehow mark the moment. I got up, ignored my e-mails and the phone calls I needed to make, and immediately went to re-watch his 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address on YouTube. If you haven’t already, go and watch it – so inspiring, humbling and thought-provoking.
In his talk, Steve shares three pivotal stories from his life – here’s a summary:
Connecting the Dots
Steve dropped out of college, and made the decision early on that he would follow his curiosity and fascination. He had no idea what he wanted to do with his life at that time. He gives the example of taking a class in calligraphy, just because he was fascinated by the beauty of the letters. Steve says “If I hadn’t taken that calligraphy class, the first Macintosh computer wouldn’t have had beautiful typography, multiple typefaces or proportionately spaced fonts… and since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no computer would have them today”
He goes on to say “It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward…but it’s very clear looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will connect at some point in the future – you have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect in the future will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference”
- How do you connect the dots in your own life, looking backwards?
- What were some decisions – that may have seemed small at the time – that have shaped who you are?
- How often do you follow your fascination and curiosity – follow your heart – rather than just treading the well-worn path?
Love and Loss
Steve says he was lucky – because he found what he loved early in life. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing.
“When I was 30, I was fired from the company I’d started. The focus of my entire adult life was gone. I was very publicly rejected, but I was still in love. It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. This led to one of the most creative periods of my life. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick… don’t lose faith. You’ve got to find what you love – in work and in your personal life. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you truly believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet – keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
- How much do you love what you do? Have you settled? Is it maybe time to keep looking?
- Do you operate with the ‘heaviness’ of success or with the ‘lightness’ of a beginner?
Death
When Steve was 17 he came across a quote that profoundly affected him and his way of being in the world. It was
“If you live each day like it was your last, some day you’ll most certainly be right”.
Every morning he looked in the mirror and asked himself, “If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer was ‘no’ for too many days in a row, he would know he needed to change something. He says “Remembering that I’m going to be dead soon is the best tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way of avoiding the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart.
We are all going to die, and that’s as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change-agent.
Your time is limited – so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma. Don’t let the noise of other peoples’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Are you living your own life, or somebody else’s?
- If today was your last day, what would you do differently?
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Goodbye, Steve – and a heartfelt thankyou. You taught us how to put a ding in the universe.
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Hi Kimberley,
Like you, I woke up this morning to the news about Steve. I am running a change management workshop in Sweden and I immediately decided to change the agenda – to show the group the speech you refer to in your blog. By sheer coincidence I had seen it two days ago when I was browsing on TED talks – and I was completely blown away. We were all moved by the poignancy of the last part – and have now adopted his phrase ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ as a byword for being courageous enough to step up and change the way things are.Thanks for pointing this speech out to the Kaizen devotees of your blog!